That’s How I Became a Villainess - Chapter 20

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 20

The Earl’s eyes darted between Bridget and Julian, confusion written across his face.
Why her?
She was nothing but the wife of some commoner who’d bought his title and his bride with a lucky streak of winnings—a woman of no consequence.
What possible connection could she have with Julian, save for a pretty face that was hardly worth mentioning?
Whatever the answer, the Earl’s instinct was to deny it all.
“No, no! I didn’t—I didn’t do anything, nothing at all—”
Without a word, Julian returned the sword to the knight.
The knight raised it high and leveled it at the Earl.
Sensing death, the Earl’s voice cracked with desperation.
“If you slaughter the nobility without cause, you won’t be able to hold the Throne! The Noble Council won’t tolerate—” His scream cut through his own words, rising to a pitch that left no room for anything else.
He couldn’t finish.
Another Shadow Knight dragged him from the bed, and his cries faded far more quickly than seemed possible.
“It’s not a seat meant to be held. It’s meant to be seized.”
Julian spoke the words without interest, as though the Throne itself meant nothing to him, and he turned toward Bridget.
The Shadow Knights became smoke at his will, dissolving into the darkness of his shadow.
In the vast manor, only two hearts beat—his and hers.
Julian stood over Bridget for a long moment, then bent down and wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth with his thumb.
Then he saw the tears clinging to her eyes and went still.
His breathing faltered.
……
A sound scraped through his teeth, raw and broken.
“Is this what you chose instead of me?”
His throat moved once, twice, three times.
He swallowed down words without number, swallowed down feelings without measure.
“Did you choose this hell.”
His lips trembled several times before he finally gave up trying to speak, squeezing his eyes shut.
The Shadow Knights, resonating with his anguish, screamed silently from within the darkness.

* * *

Milea’s breath caught when she saw the woman Julian had brought to the royal bedchamber.
“She’s—”
Despite the bizarre clothing she wore, Milea recognized Bridget instantly.
“What in the world—”
Milea stared up at Julian in shock.
Julian simply stood there, watching her with quiet uncertainty—as though he’d brought her here but had no idea what to do with her now.
“Let’s lay her down in one of the unused servants’ quarters for now.”
Julian followed Milea without protest.
Since becoming king, he’d grown accustomed to acting on whim and playing the libertine, but it was rare for him to ask Milea for help or obey her so readily.
Milea, however, was too consumed by churning thoughts to notice.
“Look after her.”
Julian set Bridget down, dropped that single command, and left the chamber.
Milea called the servants and ordered them to treat Bridget’s wounds and change her into clean clothes.
She was careful to bind their tongues as well.
“If you value your lives, keep quiet. Should even a whisper of what happened in this room reach the world outside, I cannot promise what will become of you—and I truly mean that.”
The servants swallowed hard under the sharp edge of Milea’s voice and nodded in understanding.
The servants who attended Julian’s bedchamber had been hand-selected by Milea—women of sealed lips and measured steps.
They were not the type to act recklessly, but it was better to be certain.
A king who left the palace in the dead of night without a word and returned alone.
The bruised woman he carried back, wearing nothing but scandalous underclothes.
Milea couldn’t begin to imagine what tremors would ripple through the Royal Palace if word got out—a place already teetering on the edge of upheaval.
She entrusted Bridget to the servants and hurried after Julian.
“Your Highness.”
Milea stepped into his path, her eyes searching his face as though looking at a man without shame.
“When I introduced the Countess Winston to you, I meant for you to seek relief for your sleeplessness and perhaps gain some treasure—not to abduct her.”
“……….”
That gaze—desiccated and numb, yet carrying the faintest trace of affection for the one person he considered his sole ally—fell upon Milea.
Milea drew courage from that small attachment she sensed in Julian, who had resolved to abandon his conscience and become a merciless butcher, and asked carefully.
“What on earth has happened? I must hear why the person I recommended has come to you in such a state.”
Milea was afraid Julian might have done something terrible to Bridget.
Though her concern was partly for Bridget’s sake, she was more anxious that Julian himself had become irredeemable garbage beyond anyone’s reach.
Milea had raised Julian, the late king’s illegitimate son, from childhood.
She regarded him as a son, treated the abandoned boy as her own, and had stayed with him all these years through desperate efforts to protect him.
Yet watching him become a monster bit by bit, her heart ached.
“What did you do to Bridget?”
“Do to her?”
Julian, who had been listening in silence, let out a derisive laugh.
“I saved her.”
His tone was self-mocking.
“I was curious what expression you’d make.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Julian walked past Milea as though he had nothing more to say.
Milea did not fully comprehend his words.
Still, she understood that he had not done anything wicked to Bridget.
She exhaled in relief, her eyes following his retreating figure with compassion.

* * *

Bridget awoke with a terrible headache.
It felt like a nightmare, yet as she looked about the unfamiliar surroundings, she realized she was lying in a strange place and her blood ran cold.
‘It wasn’t a nightmare.’
Just then, Milea entered the room carrying a water pitcher.
“Milea?”
Bridget, pallid and drawn, relaxed slightly at the sight of Milea but found herself bewildered.
“Where am I? What happened?”
“Don’t worry, Bridget. You’re in the Royal Palace.”
“The Royal Palace……?”
“His Highness brought you here last night. You don’t remember anything?”
At the mention of his title, Bridget froze.
‘Then what I saw just before falling asleep was…….’
That surge of Demonic Energy, the impossible disturbance.
‘It was Julian.’
He had truly come.
Her heart raced. Not from relief at being saved, nor from joy at finally reaching him.
It was the shame of having shown him that pathetic state that devastated her.
“Ah…….”
Bridget groaned, cradling her head in her hands.
In her previous life, once Milea discovered Bridget’s gifts, she had introduced her to Julian, who suffered from insomnia. Then Bridget had vanished into the Convent as if erased from the world overnight, and Julian, searching for her desperately in later days, had found her through Milea.
At that time, Milea had abandoned everything and left the Royal Palace, so it took many twists and turns for her letter to reach Julian.
When the two finally met, Bridget was already hovering at death’s door, consumed by illness.
‘I didn’t want to show him such a wretched state again.’
In this life, when they met again, she had wanted to reunite looking at least presentable.
She did not wish to be forgiven for what she had done to him out of pity or sympathy.
She wanted him to feel no compassion toward her.
He was a wounded person, and she was the one who had wounded him.
Of course, more than any other reason……
No one wants to appear pathetic before a former lover.
Yet here she was again, brought to this state.
‘Isaac……!’
Fury boiled up inside her.
The source of all her shame and misfortune.
A bone-deep revulsion flooded through her.
Milea drew closer and sat beside Bridget, whose shoulders trembled as she held her head down.
“Are you all right, Bridget?”

She hesitated for a moment, then placed her hand awkwardly on Bridget’s shoulder.
Bridget crumbled under that gentle touch. The sharp, raw emotion that had been tearing through her chest surged upward, spilling out as tears.
“Who did this to you?”
“My husband.”
The words came through tears, her voice trembling with fierce rage.
“He sold me to another man.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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